


Mission Start!

by magnolia3



Series: A Beginner’s Quest [1]
Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Birthday Presents, Boys Being Idiots, Comedy, Gaming, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-23
Updated: 2020-04-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:35:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23798569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magnolia3/pseuds/magnolia3
Summary: A lighthearted story about Chikage preparing a gift for Itaru’s birthday.
Relationships: Chigasaki Itaru/Utsuki Chikage (Mention Only)
Series: A Beginner’s Quest [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1714612
Comments: 1
Kudos: 38





	Mission Start!

**Author's Note:**

> There'll be 2 chapters on this series planned for Itaru's birthday: Chapter 1 “Mission Start!” focus on comedy/the boys being idiots and Chapter 2 "Mission Accomplished!” focus on romance/the boys being sexy, so I apologize in advance for Itaru himself barely appearing in this present chapter.

“Let’s throw a surprise party for Itaru-san’s birthday!” Sakuya’s suggestion was all it took to spark Chikage’s suppressed selfish desires. All that for a day that wasn’t for him to steal the spotlights at all. Granted, the priority was definitely making Itaru smile, something he really liked to see, and if everyone’s efforts make this happen, he would be satisfied. But deep down, Chikage wanted to be the one that delivered the most in the end, the one to truly leave Itaru speechless and that gave him the most memorable experience on his special day. He knew all too well he sounded like a fool, but he simply couldn’t back down of the self-imposed challenge once it occurred to him.

Until late at night, Chikage’s mind went wild running simulations until he sensed they were flawless, considering every one of Itaru’s little quirks and preferences so he could give him a perfectly tailored surprise. Itaru, distracted playing games using Chikage’s lap as a pillow, couldn’t even guess what his lover was plotting while he was calmly brushing his hair. And exactly because of that, he didn’t imagine the impact his murmur would have on Chikage’s near future:

“Man, I so wanted this SSR…”

“That’s it.” Thought the bespectacled man. “That’s the one detail I was missing…”

***

The day before Itaru’s birthday. Chikage spent the daylight hours covertly preparing each one of the secret gifts he planned to give to his lovely kouhai. At the same time, the rest of the Spring Troupe was at the dorms making preparations and coordinating their roles in the party Sakuya proposed. Chikage knew what he needed to do for the others, keep Itaru busy in the big day while the guys back home readied everything, something that totally wasn’t suggested on purpose, for ulterior motives. Needless to say, he wasted no time to make reservations on a restaurant Itaru fancied, which both fulfilled the troupe’s request and served as an opening act to his “private fun” masterplan.

Taking advantage of not having Itaru on his heel after work due to a gacha event, Chikage went through the rest of his shopping list, managing to acquire the remaining items and secure them until the right moment comes. Now only one gift remained unobtained: the SSR Itaru said he wanted on the previous night. Chikage didn’t have the faintest idea what a SSR even was, but he was observant enough to notice it was something to do with a mobile RPG game called Winter Conquest that Itaru seemed really into lately. While he wasn’t a good gamer in the slightest, Chikage figured he was clever enough to just download the game and figure things out for himself.

Still, a little assistance would definitely speed things up, and he didn’t exactly have time to spare. The problem is whose help he could ask for. Asking for favors in itself already leaves him feeling awkward, so his first thought was asking Hisoka, but he highly doubted the guy would stay awake past the tutorial, giving games weren’t his thing either. Hell, he probably _wasn’t even up_ right now. Idea scratched, Chikage quickly dismissed the rest of the Winter Troupe next, because, to be honest, everyone there is a lost cause for this mission. The director never even mentioned any games, so not good either. Summer guys seemed more of the outdoorsy type so they probably weren’t the best choice. Spring… they had a few good candidates (Chikage’s opinion) but the risk of information leakage was the highest there, they could very well just tell Itaru ‘Chikage wanted help with some game’ by mistake, and Chikage would most likely avoid that. He didn’t exactly tell them about his own birthday plan. Autumn seemed like the safest bet. At least he was certain Banri and Taichi had interest in this type of thing.

Inconspicuously, Chikage sit on a corner of the sofa relatively close to where some members of the Autumn Troupe were chatting among themselves. Just because he _wanted_ help it didn’t mean he would humiliate himself begging for it, mind you. He could just wait for them to come to him and casually ask them as if the idea just occurred to him, in a totally classy and not roundabout at all way. In the meantime, he could just install the game and get a feel for it. That was his initial plan at least, as he simply stopped for a good minute, staring at the scantily clad female characters that greet him on the title screen. He internally sighed, his opinion of Itaru getting slightly lower. Bikini armor in snow, what a fantastic idea, that was the developers’ idea of “winter theme”? Maybe calling Azuma wouldn’t be the worst of ideas after all.

While he skimmed through the juvenile prologue story, Chikage notices some shadows approaching him out the corner of his eyes. He smirked discreetly, ready to move whatever conversation they threw at him around so he ends up with some helpers. Problem is, the two coming his way were Azami and Juza, two far from ideal options. Maybe it would be best to shoo them away and wait for next victims, or rather candidates.

“If it isn’t Chikage-san. What’s on your phone that got you this concentrated?” Azami broke the silence.

“Porn. Now go away.”

“Ugh, you’re gross!” And that ended Azami’s participation.

“Hm, Chikage-san, wouldn’t be best to do _that_ somewhere private…?” It wasn’t Chikage’s intention to have Juza actually show concern for him. He almost felt bad for lying. Almost.

“It’s actually just a game.”

“Oh. I didn’t know you liked mobile games, Chikage-san.”

“Me neither.” Juza stared in confusion, still frozen in place. Since Chikage didn’t bother to explain, and Juza also didn’t bother in hearing an explanation, the confusion in his eyes got replaced with some sort of curiosity about the game itself. It was the chance Chikage was looking for, just with the wrong person. Oh well, catch a Juza and Banri is bound to appear sooner or later.

“We can play together.”

“Really? It supports 2 players?”

“No, but you can act as my navigator or something.”

“’Kay.” Juza quickly sit beside Chikage, while the latter explained what he already went through in the game. From the look of things, it looks like the first mission was about to take place, but before that he needed to recruit some soldiers through a random roulette thing the game directed him to. He simply went through the motions, and the soldiers readily came to him. He pulled twice, one for the tutorial and another using his “welcome gift” crystals. Some soldier cards had a R label, others a SR, for whatever reason, it looked pretty random. Then, a “SSR” was a card that had these character drawings? It was possible the one illustration Itaru wanted was one of the possible results of this roulette thing. It surely wasn’t among the ones Chikage got in the two pulls though.

“Some of those soldiers look strong.”

“But none of them are this green-haired girl with a mask and a big Japanese sword.” Chikage described everything he remembered about his goal. He sneaked a peek at Itaru’s phone while he was busy longing the other day.

“What makes her so special?”

“She has far more experience on the battlefield than the other possible recruits. I read her backstory before you came.” Naturally, that was a lie.

“Can’t you try exchanging the ones that look weak for her in the office?” Juza pointed to the draw banner.

“I’m trying to, but it seems I don’t have enough crystals to use the office again. So, for now I think I’m stuck with those units.” At least now Chikage could advance the story. He figured he would be rewarded with crystals for victories of his army and the more his kingdom prospered. Unfortunately, time wasn’t on his side.

“Juza, among my soldiers, who do you think are the strongest ones?” Chikage showed him his deck.

“Hmm, these two seem big and strong, kinda like Omi-san and Tasuku-san. This one seems like a veteran like Sakyo-san. And this one looks bold like the director.” Why is he choosing basing on appearance and associating the character to someone he knew, Chikage wondered. Although now that he gave him the idea, there was one knight on his deck that had short flaxen hair, kind of like Itaru. He was pretty cute, Chikage thought.

“Okay, whatever. Their stats don’t look too bad. Let’s put this team to test.” Chikage skimmed through the abilities of the four units Juza selected, with just slightly more attention than what he gave to the story. The chance that the very first battle would be hard was rather slim so he figured he might just do whatever as long his units gained some levels to survive the following fights and he get more crystals. And just as expected, the first fight was a complete success.

“Well fought, Chikage-san.”

“We really did well, navigator.” They were proud of themselves for some reason.

“How many crystals we have now?”

“We got 50 after winning the fight.”

“How much do we need?”

“…1000. Wait, seriously?” Chikage’s opinion of the game was now lower than his opinion of Itaru. “Is there not another way to do this faster?”

“Maybe playing the missions on a higher difficulty?” That was a pretty innocent suggestion, but one that costed 15 minutes, 3 failed attempts and 9 stamina points. Chikage wasn’t going anywhere with his plan, but he was definitely closer to understand how deep Itaru’s frustrations goes.

“I’m sorry for failing you, Chikage-san.” The pride they felt 15 minutes ago all but evaporated. “But we can still fight, one more time!” It looked like an inspirational quote, but it was just Juza pointing to the single stamina point left.

“We need a change of plans, fast. This isn’t enough. Where’s Banri, by the way?”

“He left after practice, and said he will come back in the evening.” Great.

“What are you guys doing?” Taichi approaches, happily, just wanting to know what his friends were up to, not even expecting the mission that would be dumped on his shoulders.

“Taichi-kun, as far as I know, you possess not only quick but creative thinking, being more than capable of getting out of stressful situation undetected.”

“Hahaha, Chikage-san, you make me blush!” Taichi averted his gaze in embarrassment, missing Chikage’s malicious smirk of victory.

“Taichi, we seriously need you for this.” Juza was on board, his plead genuine and not related to Chikage’s fake one.

“Even Juza-san…”

“Can you manage to hack this game and get the reward I want?”

“A what?” After several explanations, Taichi finally was able to take control of the situation and de-stress the other men, and without any hacking to boot. “Normally, these games have ads and external app deals that reward you with crystals! Like ‘download these games we recommend’ or ‘order food from this app’ and stuff like that!”

“I could use some food now.”

“The apps they recommend are extremely suspicious though.” Chikage says as he checks the deals screen. Taichi gulped, already regretting his suggestion.

“How many crystals are they giving for it? I won’t even consider food poisoning for less than 200.” Chikage would have said something about this terrifying statement, but the desperation was starting to get to him.

“Huh, we could focus on the game ones…”

“I can’t play two mobile games at once. I’ll be wasting precious time. We’ll need to take risks to win.”

“So manly!” was what Taichi wanted to say, but the dangerous circumstances stopped him. The life of two of his precious dormmates were in his hand now, so he needed to choose his words carefully. “Chikage-san, if it’s okay with you, I can play some missions for you, while you take a break… I’m good at grinding, I can do it faster than it would take for the food to get here.”

“…Can I trust you with this task?” Chikage only cared about the results, and Taichi would be a free investment, unlike the food.

“What about the stamina, wasn’t it almost at zero?”

“Ah, it will fully restore if you level up your commander rank and you’re almost there from the looks of it!” Silence in the room.

“Then I’ll leave it to you.”

“I won’t let you down!”

“If something goes wrong, blame is all yours.”

“I’ll… take it…”

“Manly.” It wasn’t the praise Taichi wanted or needed, but he got it anyway.

Some good hour later, Taichi’s enthusiastic scream echoed through the dorm, but not for long as Chikage threw a cushion at him before he could alert and bring Itaru to the living room.

“I did it, Chikage-san, look! 1000 crystals!”

“Good one.” Chikage snatched the phone from Taichi’s hand. “Now that witch will have to come!”

“Good luck, Chikage-saaaaaaan!” But not even Taichi’s encouragement prevented a bad pull.

“I feel the need to commit a crime.”

“Well, don’t be sad, Chikage-san. The rates on this game are pretty low…”

“Where can we see the rates? Clicking on this arrow?” Juza touched it before anyone could answer, switching the banner on the screen to the one featuring the aforementioned witch.

“Ah…”

“…Now I need three crimes.”

“I don’t think you mean things like tax evasion…”

“A-ah, I remembered I had homework to do… Hehehe…” And that was Taichi’s way of taking responsibility.

“What the hell is going on here?” Banri came back at the best possible time, but also at the worst one.

“Where were you until now?”

“Easy, dad, just wanted to buy some stuff. Huh, didn’t think you liked Winter Conquest…”

“I didn’t like it before, and now I like it less, if that’s even possible.”

“So, we’re going back to the grind, Chikage-san?” It was a miracle Juza wasn’t fed up with being navigator.

“I’m actually considering the food poisoning option again.”

“You’ll have to order a lot of food to get more soldiers…”

“It’s the only way to get so many crystals that fast in the beginning of the game. Most of the missions are all locked after all and you remember what happened when we tried the hard difficulty.”

“Why are you guys doing it the most obnoxious way? If you just started, do a reroll, man.”

“What?”

“Clear all of your player data in the title screen so you can start from scratch again. Just keep repeating the first pull you can spend crystals in until you can get something worth keeping. You can even skip the prologue stories.”

“Settsu, stop. That’s enough.”

“Huh, why?! Don’t tell me what to do!”

“What did you say?!”

Chikage could only hear the sound of something breaking inside of him.

Little did he know his reroll night(mare) was just starting.


End file.
